For seven and a half innings Sunday, it was a challenge to pick out the nation’s No. 1 team on Howe Field.
Oregon left eight runners on base and managed five hits against Arizona pitcher Alicia Hollowell, who was 32-0 entering Sunday.
The Wildcats, who had six runners stranded on base, also managed five hits and only had one baserunner find her way past second against the combined strengths of Duck pitchers Amy Harris and Ani Nyhus.
In the bottom of the eighth, Oregon third baseman Ashley Richards drove a lead-off home run over the left center field fence to give the No. 12 Ducks (34-12 overall, 8-4 Pacific-10 Conference) a 1-0 win against No. 1 Arizona (45-2, 9-1).
“I still can’t find the words,” Richards said, nearing the end of her post-game interviews. “I’ve been talking to so many people and I still can’t figure out what this feeling is. I feel like our team’s on the top of the world right now.”
The moment the ball came off Richards’ bat, teammates jumped into the air and screamed as they ran to home plate to congratulate the junior from Richland, Wash.
“We kept talking about ‘when we win,’ not ‘if we win,’” Oregon head coach Kathy Arendsen said. “I told them ‘when we win today, I don’t want you to get too excited. Act like it happens every day.’ But when you win in the bottom of the eighth on a home run, you can get excited. I don’t care who you are.”
Once again, the dominant story line for the Ducks was pitching. For five and two-thirds innings, the sophomore Harris returned to her freshman-season form, controlling the pace of the game and relying on the Oregon defense to handle anyone she didn’t strike out.
“Amy Harris stepped up,” Nyhus said. “She’s back and she’s ready to go and that’s huge. You can’t look at that game and think that it would have gone anything like that if she hadn’t been throwing that well. She frustrated every one of their batters.”
In the top of the fifth, Arendsen played the odds and brought Nyhus in to relieve Harris after the Wildcats got two on base with two outs. Nyhus came in to face Mackenzie Vandergeest after Vandergeest struck out the first two times she faced Nyhus on Saturday. The odds worked in Oregon’s favor as Vandergeest popped up to catcher Jenn Poore on the first pitch she saw.
Nyhus remained in the game, striking out two and allowing two hits in the final two innings. She picked up the win to improve to 19-8 on the season. The start for Harris was her second in the Pacific-10 Conference this season.

“Today I just went out and decided to forget about the name on the uniforms,” Harris said. “Each team, on any given day, could beat any team in the Pac-10. There’s no sense going out there and being afraid of anyone. The pressure’s on their shoulders — they’re Arizona, they’re No. 1 in the nation, their goal is to beat us and we just didn’t let that happen today.”
The win against Arizona came on the heels of a loss to the Wildcats on Saturday. After Nyhus opened the game with two strikeouts, first baseman Wendy Allen hit a solo shot into the batting cages past the right center field wall.
Poore led off the bottom of the inning with a line-drive home run over the center field wall to tie the game at one.
Arizona and Oregon traded strikeouts for three innings before the Wildcats put together a two-out, five-run rally in the top of the fifth. The Ducks couldn’t answer, giving Arizona the 6-1 victory in front of a packed Howe Field crowd of 1,016.
Oregon opened its weekend with a 1-0 win against Arizona State. The only run of the game came in the bottom of the second. Right fielder Kayleen Hudson hit a two-out double and scored when Sun Devil first baseman Kari Reidhead misplayed a routine throw from a teammate on a ground ball hit by Kristi Leiter.